New Pekin City Council to be seated with a light agenda

PEKIN — Two new Pekin City Council members will be seated Monday with a light agenda on their first night.

Councilmen-elect Jim Schramm and Michael Garrison won the municipal election in April. Councilmen Rusty Dunn and Tim Golden did not seek re-election. Councilman Lloyd Orrick retained his seat for another four years.

Monday’s agenda, although light, has some big-ticket items for consideration.

The Council will consider the use of Central Business District Tax Increment Finance District funds for a streetscape project in downtown Pekin not to exceed $150,000.

The money would pay for street furniture, directional signs and crosswalks between the 200 and 600 blocks of Court Street. The furniture would include 12 6-foot benches and four rectangle tables at a total cost of $17,163. New poles and accessories would be purchased at a total cost of $5,947. Another $79,888.16 would be spent on crossings, according to city documents. TIF funding has to be used for projects within the TIF boundaries.

The 14th Street Exterior Housing Rehabilitation Project is also on the agenda. The Council will consider rehab work to 26 low to moderate income homes totaling $229,900 under the HUD Community Development Block Grant program. The money comes from federal grants, not local property taxes.

The Council in October 2016 changed the way it allocates Community Development Block Grant dollars with some leftover funding from prior years. The new system targets one neighborhood at a time. The South 14th Street area from Broadway to Koch Street was chosen for this project. The sidewalk and handicapped ramps have been completed.

The city had $385,923 in leftover CDBG funding from the 2014 and 2015 programs that had to be allocated by March 1 to meet HUD requirements. The CDBG funds are used for ADA accessible ramps and sidewalks and exterior rehabilitation grants for residential property.

The housing rehabilitation program will repair roofs, siding, porch railings and windows, among other things. Most of the projects, such as windows and siding, will relate to energy efficiency. The target area includes both sides of 14th Street, but 51 percent of the money has to be used in the low to moderate side of that section of 14th Street — the west side.

The money for the projects are grants and homeowners do not have to repay the money.

Also on the agenda are the purchase of a new single axel snow truck for $147,829, the lease of 122.2 acres of farmland at the Pekin Municipal Airport to Mark Weyhrich for $13,417.56; a three-year service agreement with Midwest Engineering for planning, preliminary engineering, design engineering and construction engineering for street and sidewalk maintenance projects; a land purchase not to exceed $30,000 for the Allentown Road road project; and the annual Motor Fuel Tax resolution for street maintenance for $130,000.